Front brakes and oil change

So I did the brakes a while back - just never got around to posting the process.

Overall, it was pretty easy. Took a little longer than I thought because the new brake pads were SO much thicker than the old ones that some additional adjustments were necessary.

old vs new

First, stripped out all the old parts and gave them a once over with a rag to clean off the excess gunk.

Tried to drop in the new pads after we cranked out the caliper, but that was a no go. Too tight. Had to put the brake assembly back on the bike (for leverage) and crank loose the floating thingamajig (can you tell I'm not a mechanic?) to push it wide enough for the new pads to fit.

leverage!

freshly installed gap...

Reassembled fairly well. The right pad seemed it was touching the disc - though after a quick ride it loosened up just fine.

They're a little squeaky right now - the whole bike needs a bath and to get all the gunk cleaned out and off the pads.

Today, I finally got around to an oil change, which it turns out was desperately needed. ALL kinds of crap was stuck in the filter and the oil that I drained was *nasty*.

I flushed it with a couple quarts of good oil to make sure nothing else was hanging out in there. I will probably do more frequent oil changes for a while to make double extra sure everything is running well. Every 2,000 or 3,000 miles for now.

I'm putting 10W-40 in it for now - that's what the people at hondatwins forums seem to like.

Naturally, nobody in Flagstaff carries the FRAM CH6008 filter that I need for this 1986 'Hawk 450. I've got it on order from O'Reilly with the promise that it will be in Tuesday morning.